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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2010Stan HeathChris HowardDominique JonesNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Georgetown - 69 COACH STAN HEATH: Congratulations to Georgetown. I don't think we played as well as we could have today. We really struggled to find a shot. That happened yesterday. I thought today it really caught up to us. We couldn't hit a perimeter jumpshot. Sometimes when that happens, you're not able to make shots and it affects your defense. And they were getting some of those back-door cuts they're so good at against us as well. A very difficult team to play against, I think, with one day of preparation, one walk-through. Plus they play such a unique style. So I think they're going to have success in these kinds of formats. But I'm real proud of our team. We never gave up. We kept fighting. We struggled making shots, but we tried to do anything we could to give ourselves a chance. We just couldn't get it done today. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. The outside shooting, do you know what the problem is? Did you get to a point where you stopped taking threes? COACH STAN HEATH: I think there was. I saw several times I thought we had 15, 17-footers and even threes we should have taken. We passed those things up to try to get a little bit closer. When we get in there this time, you look at Greg and Monroe and Vaughn and some of those long, big guys, it affects your shot. Look at a guy like (Mike) Mercer. Knocks down those shots at a pretty high rate. Today he had a real difficult time finishing around the basket. Q. The shots weren't falling, at the 16:00 mark, you were down by six or seven, what did they do to pull away? COACH STAN HEATH: I thought we were in great shape. Greg Monroe picked up his third or fourth foul. He was going to the bench and they were going to bring in some other guys. I really felt that was a pivotal time we could make a run. And really put the pressure on them. And I don't think there was anything necessarily they did. We just could not make a shot. Where they made a couple of threes, I thought Clark picked things up for them. I thought Wright really picked up as well when Monroe left the game. And we weren't able to stop them or keep pace offensively against them. Q. Coach, your team came out so impressively in the second half. Two immediate blocks and I think there were three dunks. Was there an essential message you gave them at halftime? What happened behind closed doors, and your feeling when you cut it to six a couple of times? COACH STAN HEATH: I really didn't think we were the aggressive team in the first half at all. I didn't think we took the fight to Georgetown. We just talked at halftime and really kind of looked ourselves in the mirror and realized if we're going to give ourselves a chance, we had to come out more aggressive. And I thought Toarlyn Fitzpatrick, the freshmen made great plays in the first half. I thought those momentum plays helped us. We got great penetration from our guards who were looking inside. Our big guys started to finish. I can't count to you how many lay-ups and free-throws that were missed. In a game like this against a team like Georgetown, you have to complete those plays. We weren't able to do it consistently. But for that small amount of time you just mentioned, we did. Q. Chris, I know you guys obviously wanted to stay here longer. Just what's does this do to your postseason outlook? CHRIS HOWARD: We have to wait to Sunday. I don't know. We really don't know what's going to happen. We know we're going to have more games to play. Regardless of what happens. I'm proud of my teammates, coaches. This year has been good to me, to finish as a senior. Just to stay positive and remember there's more basketball to be played. Q. When you guys made that run of four straight a month ago, you set the bar pretty high in terms of talking about NCAA. Is it hard to appreciate just going to the postseason now? DOMINIQUE JONES: Yeah, because I feel like we're determined what we were going to do. I think we gave up some games we should have won. And I think that makes a difference right here. Me setting the bar that high, you know that's the way it should be set at. If you want to be big-time players and have a big-time program, that's the way it should be set at. We just got to keep our heads high, you know and just go out and play with pride wherever we play at. Q. From a player's perspective, when a team goes cold from the outside like that, how frustrating is that? CHRIS HOWARD: It's really frustrating. A lot of shots were there for me, Mike. Sometimes you shy away from taking shots like that. They put a lot of pressure on Dominique to try to create for us by himself. So guys coming back next year, they'll learn from this. It's a learning experience. Get in the gym. Understand the shots are going to be here. Playing with a guy like Dominique all the attention is on him. It helped in a way for the guys to learn, the guys who are returning. Q. Dominique, can you compare how Georgetown defended you the previous time you played them and then tonight, this afternoon? What was different? What was tougher? CHRIS HOWARD: I don't think it was different. I don't think it was tougher. I just feel like we had open shots and we missed them. I missed them. Everybody else taking open shots missed them. You can't beat a Top 25 team and a BIG EAST team without hitting shots. We know that. You know, they just weren't falling. It's hard to beat teams like that when you're not hitting shots from the outside. THE MODERATOR: USF, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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